From Terra to Terra, the Star Emperor's Holiday

"...You mean, these things were given to you for free by the Rogue Trader?"

Although there aren't many heavy weapons in this pile of stuff, it's still enough to arm two Codex Astartes Corps with some left over. Which Rogue Merchant Dynasty could come up with such wealth and give it away for free?

Compared to Bel-Shar's fantastical story, Tiberus preferred to trust his own judgment. He patted Bel-Shar's shoulder kindly and said:

"Bel-Shar, how could you fabricate lies and deceive your battle-brothers? Don't be afraid even if you seize the Forge World. The Chapter Master will take care of the aftermath for you. Those scumbags have cheated us a lot in the past, so let's just consider it some interest."

"No, Chapter Master, I'm telling the truth! Golden psychic energy! I even saw the holy projection of His Majesty the Supreme!"

Belshar was getting extremely anxious. He was afraid that if he spoke too quickly he might miss some wrong information and the captain would not believe him. He was also afraid that he would waste too much time and miss the opportunity to help Si Ye and win his favor. Struggling with the two options, the tough guy, who weighed nearly two tons including his armor, was so anxious that he kept stamping his feet.

"…So what you said is true? The Rogue Trader gave these to you, and he didn't ask you for anything?"

"He is also the Emperor's agent."

Belsair corrected him, then saluted solemnly by beating his chest.

"I swear on my battle honor!"

"..."

Tiberus glanced at Bel-Shar, who was extremely serious, then looked at the various supplies piled on the ground, turned his head and walked towards the transmission deck, while giving orders.

"Move everything to the regiment's warehouse, then everyone assemble and change into their uniforms. Have the navigator start planning the route. We're going to aid His Majesty's spokesperson!"

As Tiberus gave the order, the members of the surrounding regiments who had long coveted the brand new power armor rushed forward and began to act as manual porters. After all, the sooner they finished moving, the sooner they could put on the new power armor.

The warp engine of the battle barge began to warm up, and the navigator began to use the psychic amplification instrument to observe the warp space route. Fortunately, the recent psychic storms were far away near the Extreme Star Field, and the warp near the Hazy Star Field was as calm as water, which was a good time for warp navigation.

...

Naturally, the Carcharodon Legion was not the only one to receive the astropathic message. The Inquisition and the Ministry of Justice Fortress in the Edge Expansion Zone where the Lagtomo galaxy was located, as well as the Frontier Forge World, which was the protagonist, all received this clear but confusing astropathic message.

Unlike the Inquisition, which immediately dispatched inquisitors, the Ministry of Justice immediately began searching for information about the Elfendor Rogue Trader Dynasty.

The highest person in charge of the Border Forge World, the Lord of the Forge: Fossafarron scoffed at the news.

"A mere Rogue Trader dares to question the devout believers bathed in the glory of Om Messiah. Once I have finished studying this 'ancient technology', I will capture him for his slander and dirty tricks against the Mechanicus, and make him kneel before the 'breath' of Om Messiah to repent..."

Before Fusafranc could finish his bold words, a sharp alarm began to spread throughout the entire forging world through the sound array servitors.

As the Lord of the Forge, Fusafaran naturally held a powerful fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Forge World Guard Fleet roaming around the Forge World issued him an early warning. The Auspex detected something in the surrounding space rapidly approaching the Forge World.

"Approaching quickly?"

Fusafra was puzzled. The mechanic who managed the auspicious instrument shouldn't be so lazy.

If it was an attack, it must have been very close, and the high-energy reaction would have been easily captured by the auspicious instrument. If it was a spaceship or a warship, then the identification code of the human empire's warship, or the evil alien warship, should have been described in detail.

But you should never say that something is approaching quickly; such vague descriptions will have no meaning other than severe punishment.

"The auspicious instrument cannot observe the specific situation. It is approaching rapidly. It is an attack, it is..."

The sound array communication was suddenly interrupted. Fusafran, who had boarded the elevator, looked up at the sky. The thick, dark gray polluted atmosphere of the forging world obscured all vision. Even though he was in the forging tower exclusively for the Lord of the Forge, the visibility was extremely poor.

However, his deeply modified eyes still saw something. A thin but bright light streaked across the night sky and hit the guard fleet in his blind spot.

"What the hell? Could it be that some Rogue Traders are so audacious as to directly attack the Forge World?"

There are only a few super heavy industrial production bases like Forge Worlds in the entire human empire. Each one is the darling of the human empire and the foundation for the Mechanicus to maintain its pride. Apart from heretics and aliens, how could anyone dare to use force on a Forge World?

In fact, Fusafran was just trying to flatter himself. Although the Border Foundry World was called a Foundry World, its scale was far smaller than those regular Foundry Worlds.

The reason why it has such a name is simply because the marginal expansion area located on the edge of the human empire is vast and has many planets. Ordinary industrial worlds can hardly meet the needs of the Astra Militarum to deploy and arm planetary defense forces in this expansion area. Therefore, with a certain amount of resource allocation, the Frontier Forge World has emerged with difficulty.

Fusafranc quickly broke through the atmosphere in a transport plane, but when he reached the armed ring in the orbit of the forge world and was about to board his proud mechanical fleet, he was horrified to find that the main cruiser of the garrison fleet sailing in the galaxy had been attacked and broken in half, and the broken parts were slowly drifting around.

At the same time, a large amount of noise filled all the sound array communication channels, making communication extremely difficult, and the remaining garrison warships were like headless flies, making various ridiculous evasive maneuvers in the galaxy.

"What happened! [Pride of Oran] was attacked by something."

[Pride of Oran] was the flagship of the garrison fleet. In the barren and remote marginal expansion area, this Dictator-class cruiser, which was larger than the Moon-class, was a very powerful warship. It was lost in such an unclear way. Fusafron felt a pang of pain in his mechanical heart.

"A light... Boss... I... saw... a... light..."

Facing the inquiries from the Director of the Forging World, the panicked garrison fleet seemed to have stabilized a lot, and intermittent sounds came from the severely disturbed sound array.

"Light?"

...

Chapter 323 Dragon Scale Light Particle Attack

That's right, light.

The light particle attack originating from the [Three-Body World] actually does not require any very advanced technology. Its essence is to extract mass points and then accelerate them by any means.

The final effect of the attack depends entirely on how much energy the user puts in. It is an attack method that respects physics very much.

Destroying a star just to kill some ordinary targets is too extravagant even in the eyes of the Star Empire.

After all, the Burning Heaven Divine Weapon can provide dark matter to the empire by blowing up a star, while light particles will only leave a mess when they shatter a star.

Therefore, the Xinghai Empire Academy of Sciences has perfected and improved this technology, enriched the types of ammunition, and made its destructive power more controllable.

The attack that destroyed the cruiser in the Forging World was a probing attack from the turret of a cruiser from the 9th Fleet.

The attack method is also very simple. By extracting [Ether Dragon Scale], a special substance that can resist supernova explosions at close range, it is transformed into mass point ammunition in an accelerated orbit, and then biu!

With the help of the Star Empire's superluminal attack, the dragon scale mass point became an indestructible arrow. After leaving a dazzling golden scratch in the deep universe, it easily cut a Mechanicus warship that blocked its path into two halves.

"Hmm... why do I feel like it's a bit tasteless..."

Looking at the effectiveness of the dragon scale light particle attack, Si Ye supported his chin, feeling a little bored.

"While the range has increased significantly, judging by the effectiveness, the Gigacannon is still more suitable for using the original antimatter shells."

"Well... it's just an experimental model after all. The Military Science Academy's goal is to use this technology to create a means of directly destroying planets, freeing the Empire from its dependence on the Colossus, which is too cumbersome to move."

"The miniaturization of doomsday weapons is also... Oh... It's okay."

Si Ye remembered that he was the one who approved the budget for the light particle attack himself. He hoped that the Academy of Sciences could make progress in many areas. After all, no one would complain about having too much technical reserves.

"Alright, now that the experiment is over, let's make some preparations and control the [Phantom Shells] of each warship to avoid being exposed."

During this period, the ships of the Ninth Fleet have undergone some minor modifications. A set of light-curing solid projection equipment can effectively cover each warship with a layer of church shell, completing a perfect camouflage.

Of course, since it is just a projection, it does not actually change the various functional positions of the Star Empire warships.

So if someone observes closely, they will find a strange scene of Si Ye's fleet.

Including but not limited to, stained glass depicting the Emperor's image emitting spears of light, the majestic Imperial Double-Headed Eagle capable of firing 680mm caliber antimatter projectiles, and the magnificent ramming horn that can suddenly fire an arc of electricity that completely decomposes matter.

Of course, if anyone asked the reason, Si Ye had already taught all the captains a unified answer.

All this is the power of the Emperor!

"Stop immediately! Your attempt to attack the Forge World constitutes a substantial rebellion!"

A large number of sonic warnings mixed with astropathic communications spread, and the Forging World sounded the battle alarm while sending news of its own attack to the surrounding worlds.

After receiving the command from Fusafranc, the warships docked in the dock were finally able to complete their combat deployment and gathered into a huge fleet within the galaxy.

Although the Border Forging World is a parallel import, the necessary protective measures are still in place.

The heavy light spear defense system built based on the asteroid belt outside the galaxy began to activate, and the portal fortress satellites at the edge of the galaxy also began to activate various weapon arrays.

Generally speaking, the Human Empire rarely builds an asteroid belt defense system, because overly scattered buildings will inevitably make it difficult to supply the troops stationed in the asteroid belt. It is better to build a few more fortress satellites, which are more in line with the Astra Militarum's trench warfare combat strategy and are tough and difficult to crack.

However, the situation is different when it comes to the Mechanicus. They often only need to replace the operators stationed in the asteroid belt with servitors.

A heavily modified servitor can operate 24 hours a day without sleep, and a large amount of combat supplements and nutrient solutions will keep the servitor in top condition until it is overloaded and damaged.

When they are no longer needed, these mechanical servants can be frozen into hibernation, maintained regularly, and the nutrient solution tanks replaced.

As for whether the mechanical servant is uncomfortable?

Who cares.

Just as the population of the Forge World as counted by the Mechanicus is often only in the tens of millions, in the eyes of these oil-headed people, those slave servitors and those who are about to become slave servitors are not worthy of being counted in the population, because they are just consumables and lubricants to keep the sacred machinery running.

"The border forge world has rebelled. After failing to assassinate the Rogue Trader, they intend to resist stubbornly. Surrender and accept trial immediately!"

While exchanging verbal attacks, the fleet slowly approached the border forging world, while Si Ye watched the colorful light surging between his fingers.

"nailed it?"

"Contractor, don't worry, we'll take action!"

It was unrealistic to rely on that not-so-smart mechanical priest to drag the entire Border Forge World into the water, so Si Ye asked the Void Realm Evil God to go around the Forge World and create some "straw" that could break the "camel's back".

"Your Majesty, the fleet has entered the focused range of the enemy system's defense weapons."

"Activate the combined shield, push in, and give those servitors rest."

Si Ye didn't care whether those mechanical servants came out of incubators or were made by humans. Anyway, it was impossible to make the Star Sea Empire get used to the existence of these weird things.

To witness and understand these things and give them relief became the common idea of ​​everyone in the Ninth Fleet.

"Star message requesting assistance has been sent under attack."

"An unknown hostile fleet has entered the defense system's range."

Each piece of information was summarized on the Moon-class cruiser that was temporarily promoted to the flagship. Fusafra frowned and stared at the data on the auspicious instrument.

Thanks to the wide-area interference and dimensionality reduction strikes of the counter-intelligence system, the Mechanicus fleet in the border forge world could only see the photocured projections of three Moon-class cruisers flying the Elfindor Wolf flag, whether they observed with instruments or with the naked eye. They could not see a single edge of the Ninth Fleet that was actually hidden behind the photocured projections.

But even three Moon-class cruisers were enough to surprise Fusafranc. You know, many merchant and ronin families use Sword-class frigates as heirlooms, and having a Moon-class frigate as a flagship is already very remarkable.

And if the identity of a Rogue Merchant who owns three Moon-class cruisers is true, then he is undoubtedly a member of the Imperial Blood Merchant Families such as Valancius or Cavendish, or even better.

Then Fusafran would have to consider whether heretics had really infiltrated the Forge World. After all, the character of his mechanical priests who were hanging around in such a remote place was more or less abstract.

"This is the last warning round. If they don't stop, open fire."

Fusafran gave the order, but then thought of the opponent's strange attack that cut through the star field, and hurriedly added.

"The light spears of the fortress satellite and asteroid defense systems are only allowed to fire once, no, twice. After paralyzing the opponent's void shield, immediately use the paralysis macrocannon to attack. I want to use the rare technology on the enemy warships to make up for the losses of the Forge World."

The loss of a Dictator-class cruiser was quite painful for the Border Forge World, which could only barely manufacture Moon-class cruisers. Fusafran only hoped that the special artillery in the hands of this reckless Rogue Trader could make up for his loss.

After receiving the order from the highest commander, the communicator issued an ultimatum to the three light-curing projectors, but naturally there was no result.

Then, the Forge World's defensive firepower opened fire.